Book Review: King of Envy
Ana Huang’s books are ones I do look forward to reading. They’re light, fun, exciting, and the smut ain’t half bad either. Essentially, these are the fun books I look forward to after some pretty heavy reading. Like that damned Plato. This is the kind of book I don’t need two brain cells for; I don’t mean that as an insult. I mean it in the sense that Huang’s books are the best form of escapism.
Ayana is a supermodel supreme, but she has a problem. Her agency, Beaumont, is a predatory piece of shit with Jeffrey Epstein vibes written all over it. The agency is exploitative, never pays her onetime and the clients… give everyone the creeps. So a marriage of convenience has been arranged with her friend Jordan Ford. Jordan marries Ayana, she gets the money to get out of her contract, and he can inherit millions and his family legacy, i.e. the company. It’s a win-win. There is a small fly in the ointment. Jordan Ford is not the hero of our tale; no, it is the dangerous and reclusive Vuk Marcovic. Oh, and boy, is he pissed that his friend is marrying Ayana when he saw her first. We got some class A pining here, chaps. So buckle up, we’re in for a ride.
So you can kind of imagine there's a forbidden-romance element here. Which is cute, but this is Ana Huang. Ana Huang might have ‘cute’ heroines, but she doesn’t do ‘cute’ storylines. If two characters fucking in a private elevator is any indicator, then Huang loves to add a rush of adrenaline to her storyline. In this case, Vuk has a dangerous past that will eventually catch up to him. There are guns, knives, torture and a lot of blood and gore. I won’t lie, the torture was a new element to Huang’s storytelling that I hadn’t really anticipated. She had touched on it slightly with some of her earlier characters, but this time she went to town. It’s not for the fainthearted.
But, back to business, this isn’t my favourite Ana Huang by a long shot, but of her ‘King of Sin’ series, I would probably still say that King of Greed is my favourite. This one… meh. I can take it or leave it. Sure, the smut made me giggle and also made me look over my shoulder when on public transport (heck, you would if you’ve read anything of Huang’s). But as ever, it is always fun to read her books, and I look forward to reading the next instalment of the series, the King of Lust and Gluttony is on their way next, and I look forward to more deliciously smutty, gooey nonsense that Huang writes next.